Zurich, Day 2

Maggie goes off to work and I go into downtown Zurich again. Maggie graciously agreed to bring my suitcase for Paris with her to work so I wouldn't have to walk around Zurich with it all day. She leaves and 15 minutes later, naturally, I discover I've forgotten my bra. Genius. Good thing there is an H&M right near the train station downtown. Also temporarily forget that, although I've become a "light packer" traveler (two weeks of honeymoon? ONE carry-on suitcase people), my second carry-on bag, always jam packed with books to read, travel books, etc. is NEVER light. I'll never be able to carry this bag around all day long. God bless H&M once again. Go to pay for said bra and bag. Salesperson definitely speaks not one word of English. Her hand gestures suggest my credit card was not accepted. I tell her to swipe again. I feel less like an idiot when her superior comes over and shows her how to manually enter the credit card number. I feel even less like an idiot, simultaneously learning that she's just a moron, when I watch her entering the numbers I know not a single one of them to be numbers of my credit card. I look at the card in her hand and NO JOKE, she's reading them upside down. Numbers are universal my friends..... what did she THINK she was reading? There are 7's and 5's in my card number..... I grab it out of her hand and turn it around and show her. Voila! Card accepted. Half ton bag on each shoulder instead of one ton bag on one, and the girls are in place. Great success!

Lunch at a cute little coffee shop, where I get basically a super thin crust pizza. The name slips my mind now, but it was very good. Bill comes and I fork over the credit card. No no! Credit cards only about 50 francs! Do my ears deceive me? The franc and dollar exchange basically 1 for 1. Can you imagine a $50 limit at a coffee shop in the U.S.? Neither could I. PLUS my bill was $24.90, so there was no way I could order more coffee enough to bring it up to $50. Worse, I had EXACTLY $23.90 left in francs AND this was my last day in Switzerland. In steps Mr. Euro. Not, not some handsome Swiss German man that offered to cover my bill. The currency. The accept both. I pay for my coffee in Euros and my pizza in Francs. Crisis averted.

I visit Zurich's two big churches. The first, the Fraumunster, is a benedictine abbey. There are 5 beautiful very primary-colored, stained glass windows by Marc Chagall in the choir of the abbey. The second church is the Grossmunster, a protestant church, with very modern stained glass windows. As Forrest Gump famously said, "that's all I have to say about that." I didn't take pictures of the church, but this is a cute square downtown.
After a glass of champagne in a caviar bar, I met Maggie after work for the train to Paris. Just like she warned me, the train left promptly at 4:27. 4.5 hours, one croque monsieur, a broken door (which just about put Maggie over the edge ;)) and one little bottle of cold pinot noir later, we arrived in Paris at the Gare d'Est. The taxi drive took us right by the pyramid and the Louvre, and we could see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower as we crossed the Seine. We arrived at the hotel and headed out to Le Petit Sommelier for dinner. You better choose quick, they warned, because the kitchen was closing. We ordered a nice bottle of wine however, that the "sommelier" clearly approved of, and all of a sudden, they were in no rush to see us out the door. They even let us stay for dessert (how polite!). We made a toast to the Paris vacation that was finally taking place. C'est arrive!

Zurich

There's a back story. Maggie and I were roommates at BC our sophomore year where we quickly learned that while good friends, we can never ever ever ever ever again live together! That year we were supposed to go to Paris over Spring Break, but Mags got super sick (like hospital stay sick) the day before we were supposed to go. Jump ahead seven or so years to 2010 where Mags tells me that she will be in Zurich working for a number of months. "Come to Europe!" she says, "We can go anywhere you want on the weekend." The word "Europe" generally translates in my little mind to "Tuscany" or "Paris." Given the history, I thought it was time to finally take our sojourn to my favorite city on Earth, Paris! Besides, I thought, there will be know glorified hostels and budget meals this time around. God Bless being a working adult ;)

The plan is for me to fly to Zurich, meet Maggie, and train with her to Paris to spend the weekend.

March 2. Arrive EWR. Security a BREEZE. The airport is EMPTY. Glorious. Even more glorious? There's a legit wine bar in EWR's Terminal C now. Like lots by the glass, flights, and non-disgusting sounding food options. I order a glass of bubbly and begin reading "My Life in France" by Julia Child (appropriate choice, eh?)

Aside...... but Rachel, you say, you gave up weekday drinking for Lent! Bubbly counts, no? Yes, it counts. Yes, that's what I gave up. But I'm on vacation. And I'm a bad Catholic anyways. I figure I'll be visiting no fewer than five churches in Paris (and there are two famous ones in Zurich), so God will maybe look this over.

I next order a nice glass of Burgundy. I almost forget I'm in an airport. I glide to gate 10 minutes after scheduled boarding time to find no line and also no buildup at the entrance to the plane. The Swiss are efficient, I think to myself. Watch the Blind Side, pop an Ambien, arrive in Zurich. Follow Mags' instructions to downtown and walk around. Manage to get slightly lost in a city that (1) isn't' small and (2) has a river running through the center of it as a guide post. Woops! Find my way around and explore. At about 2:30pm, I can barely keep my eyes open. Head back to hotel for 5 hour nap. Wake up just in time for Maggie to arrive from work. Head to fondue place (invented by the Swiss - a lovely people). Fondue is GOOD. MMMMM cheese. Better yet... MMMM Gruyere cheese melted with wine.


Arrive back at the hotel and crash. Afraid when I awake at 2:30am. Feel wide awake, but magically fall back to sleep and wake up when Maggie's alarm clock goes off. Day two in Zurich next!

Restaurant Review - Marea

Last night we went to Marea, an Italian seafood restaurant on Central Park South. It was fantastic.

Wine List: organized from lightest to fullest body. I really hate when wines are organized this way. They should be organized by country, region and then type and producer. T

Amuse Bouche - a parsnip soup. It was really tasty, but I'm getting increasingly tired of soup as amuse. It seems lazy to me. Making a big pot of soup and putting it into individual shot glasses is not particularly "amusing." That said, I love soup, and generally I like the flavor of any amuse soup given to me.

Tasting of Raw Fish - fluke, mackerel and tuna. The fluke was really nice and fresh tasting. The mackerel was unreal - it was served with duck proscuitto and pomergranate seeds. The flavor combination was so good, I wanted it to linger in my mouth, so I gave both bites of the tuna to the husband.

Antipasti
Husband: lobster and butternut squash soup
Wife: crab with burrata and eggplant
Wife tried husband's soup and was very impressed. Wife is a sucker for all iterations of butternut squash soup and this was no exception. Wife's dish was innovative and excellent as well. Burrata is made by forming a hollow bowl of fresh buffalo mozzerella cheese, filling it with fresh curds of mozz, topping it with fresh cream, and covering up the bowl. It's basically a little piece of heaven on earth. It's tough to find, because it needs to be served very fresh and is therefore very expensive if actually produced in and shipped from Italy, or you have to find someone who is into making this fresh cheese locally. God Bless NYC where you can find several such persons :)

Primi:
Husband:
Wife: the best pasta I've had in 2010 (i.e. fresh fusilli with octopus and bone marrow). I could have eaten the pasta plain it was so good. More restaurants should do fresh pasta. However, I was greatful for the excellent and rich sauce.

Secondi:
Husband: swordfish. He says it's quite excellent. I do not taste as I don't particularly care for swordfish
Wife: scallops. I know. "BORING!" Scallops are like the roast chicken of a seafood menu, put there for people who aren't adventurous with food. But I like scallops, and they sounded good. They were really big and excellently seared.

Dessert:
Husband: apple thing. Because he always gets the apple thing (it is very American of him)
Wife: chocolate thing. Because wife always gets the chocolate thing (uh, it's chocolate). Wife likes the chocolate thing. It's creamy. The ice cream, whatever flavor, might have been vanilla, was gobbled up in one bite. I'm almost being serious. I think it was freshly made.

Mini chocolates:
There was a peanut butter thing. Oh my Lord, the peanut butter thing. Husband insisted he was too full. Wife, despite her better judgement, insisted he try the peanut butter thing. Husband was not disappointed. Wife was disappointed because she totally missed out on the other half of the peanut butter thing. Wife makes resolution to share less with husband.

Restaurant Review - Picholine

Well my dear 10 readers (ok ,that's aspirational). I blog when I travel, but I don't travel so much. I do, however, eat out frequently, so maybe I'll blog about that too.

Last night Husband and I went to Picholine, truly one of our favorite restaurants in Manhattan. It's always such a pleasant and memorable experience to eat there. By way of back story, we went to Picholine the first time a few years ago after seeing something at Lincoln Center (maybe Opera?). We had a great time. The next time we went back, the staff remembered us, remembered our table, what wine we had, etc. Now, I am not stupid. I realize they don't ACTUALLY remember my beautiful face - they rely on Open Table. Still, the fact that they really make the effort appeals to me. The service at Picholine is so wonderful and consistent.

Picholine had one Michelin Star when the guide first came out in New York, but was upgraded to two in 2009. We were very exited for the restaurant. Anyways, when it came to picking a place to eat for my first "real" meal post wisdom-tooth extraction, I picked Picholine, and we went Friday, January 15th. We were escorted back to the table in the corner where we have sat all but one time we visited the restaurant. It feels like home.....

Husband and I are generally 50/50 "full on tasting menu"/choose from the main menu. Sometimes, there are dishes from the main menu that really sound great, and others there are a few courses of a tasting menu that we could take or leave. Last night, we chose the five course tasting menu.

Wines:
Champagne - Pol Roger
Gevrey Chambertin, Domaine Dominique Gallois "Le Combe Aux Moines" 2002
Sherry, Pedro Ximinez
Banyuls, 2006

Amuse Bouche:
Manchego Tempura with black olive dipping sauce - nicely done. It was fried cheese, so you'd expect the texture of a mozzarella stick, but this was light as a feather (though still, FRIED cheese)
Asparagus soup with truffle foamish stuff - what a standout. This stuff was delicious. So delicious in fact, that Husband tried to steal the rest of Wife's as she was tasting the wine that we ordered. It didn't work. Wife slowly savors really good things. Husband should learn from Wife.
Gruyere something with green sauce - eh, it was ok, but gruyere is my favorite cheese, and this didn't taste very gruyere-y.
Pistachio panna cotta with a something gelee (geez, I'm good at this..... NOT) - also pretty awesome. I was definitely scraping the little saucer with my little spoon to finish the last of this one.

Course one:
Wife: Taste of winter vegetables
Husband: Game chips

Course two:
Husband: Foie Gras Torchon with apples presented in different ways (apple chips, apple reduction, etc., etc.)
Wife: Foie Gras "Shabu Shabu" in broth - the broth cooked the foie gras - it has pickled shallots in it - it was delish.

Course three:
Chestnut tagliatelle with black truffle - the most disappointing dish of the evening. This is basically the dish that was the deciding factor in the "tasting menu/off the menu" debate as both Husband and Wife desperately wanted to try this. The pasta was really bland. The chestnut piece and black truffle shavings were good though. Definitely returning to the risotto next time - we should have known to bet against the house on this one (I dream of the truffled risotto for days in anticipation of a night at Picholine).

Course four:
Lobster with yummy fried vanilla milk sauce - and I mean YUMMY. This was another standout dish. The lobster was cooked wonderfully.

Course five:
Wife: Pigeon - surprisingly good, also, surprisingly red
Husband: Lamb

Course six:
Le Fromage ;) Picholine has a great cheese cart (the best on West 64th Street!) and a very knowledgeable fromagier. They've switched fromagiers since last we went (or perhaps it was the tall guy with glasses' day off). I like the old guy better, but this guy helped us pick out a U.S. gruyere (who knew this existed), some soft cheese for the Husband, a Swiss gruyere and an English cheddar. But these are mostly hard, sharp cow's milk cheese - aren't you the least bit adventurous Wife? Uh no, not when it comes to cheese - I mean look, I'll try anything, but I LOVE the cheese that I love, so I'm not going to waste one of my four selections when there is something else on the cart that appeals to me. So if you ever feel the need to bring cheese to my house, make it moo-ey, hard and sharp. I'll love ya for it.

Course seven:
Wife: Liquid chocolate [fill in the blank]. When Wife sees "liquid chocolate" she stops reading and knows that is what she is going to order. Wife was not disappointed.
Husband: fruit something cannoli. Wife did not want to try. Wife doesn't think fruit and dessert mix.

Mini desserts:
There's this caramel thing they always bring out that Husband and Wife each secretly hope the other won't be in the mood for so Husband or Wife can have both. Never pans out that way. Also, no peanut butter fudge on this visit - which is another thing Wife and Husband look forward to.

All in all, a GREAT dining experience.

p.s., so the restaurant is quiet, and by 11 or so, when we left, it was us and this party of two girls wearing the shortest dresses I've ever seen. Husband was like "holy crap - there's skin between the napkin on their lap and the hem of the dress!" Anyways, they were visiting from Dallas and talking to the busboy about the boom-boom room at the Standard Hotel. First ladies, the busboy barely speaks English..... anyways, they must have literally overheard us talking about Dallas because they chime in with "oh Dallas is so great." Wife countered to Husband that she prefers Austin and the next words out of these labreshas' mouths were about how much they hated Austin. It was shocking, but very funny. As we were leaving, Wife must have knocked the purse off of the back of the chair of one of the girls. It really wasn't intentional (though I might modify the story later to make it intentional, because that makes Wife more of a Blair Waldorf-esque bad-ass). But Wife did not turn around, even as she heard the thud and realized what she must have done - she just kept walking without pause. Husband was amazed. Wife, 1 girls from Dallas, 0. Hope you had fun at the boom boom room ladies. Wear longer dresses next time.